Earlier this summer I had the opportunity to photograph a wedding for my niece Jessica and her fiancée (now husband) John. Although I have done a reception before, a wedding was something completely new and different. And normally this is not something I would be comfortable doing. The majority of wedding couples are looking for a lot of posed and staged images, which, while I’ve done a few portraits in the past under less demanding circumstances, is not something I’m particularly interested in doing. For this event, I shot it in a documentary/photojournalist style. I’ve seen a few photographers who claim to shoot weddings in this style, but few who do it exclusively. And in this case, the bride was still interested in having a few traditional posed shots as well. Since I wasn’t comfortable doing that myself, I found another photographer (check out Mimi Snow Photography) looking for some wedding experience to help me out.

The event was a nice, casual affair. Although the bright sunlight created challenging lighting at times the day turned out beautiful which really highlighted the location, Evergreen Gardens in Bellingham.

Is this something I would do again? Documentary/photojournalism-style wedding photography is such a niche, there’s probably not much opportunity for me. But I would certainly consider it if a couple was interested in documenting their wedding without the day being interrupted to stage photos.